India’s dependable middle-order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara had a tough childhood as he was not allowed in any things apart from cricket from a young age by his father and former Ranji player Arvind Pujara. He was born into a middle-class family and a disciplined life saw his son’s success going forward. Senior Pujara played six matches from 1976-1980 for Saurashtra as well.
He was a clerk in Indian railways and posted in Rajkot, Saurashtra and identified Pujara’s talent while he was playing gully cricket. Cheteshwar went through a lot of tough times during his younger days, as he was not allowed to bat in the tennis ball cricket but only allowed to participate as a wicketkeeper because his father thought tennis ball had a different bounce from a regular cricket ball and that could affect him.
Cheteshwar Pujara lost his mother at an early age but has given the credit to her by saying that he gets the discipline and cool mind from her only. Moreover, he used to love their Navratri festival where they have dandiya and Garba but Cheteshwar was not allowed to play dandiya as the sticks of this could hurt him as well. His success didn’t come smoothly, a lot of sacrifice and dedication from him and his parents helped him become this successful.
However, one of the best Test players – Pujara fondly recalls all of his memories of his mother who bought him an INR 1500 bat and then she used to pay the store in installments whenever she could. Even she also sewed his pads as the full-size ones didn’t fit Pujara as well. She believed that Cheteshwar will play for India one day and this belief gave him confidence in his early days too.
He has scored 5840 runs in 77 Tests at an average of 48.66 with 18 centuries and he has 15705 runs in 202 First-Class matches with 50 centuries helped him become one of the highest-paid Test cricketers in the country as well. Moreover, he and his father have decided to set up a cricket academy in their place to help young talents with all the coaching and infrastructure facilities they need to be successful.
